Three arrested in Forbestown home-invasion robbery

OROVILLE -- Three men have been arrested in connection with a home-invasion robbery where two forced their way into a residence and doused a man with pepper spray.

At about 4:20 p.m. Thursday, a Forbestown resident called the Butte County Sheriff's Office to report he was the victim of a home-invasion robbery.

The victim told deputies two men drove off in his pickup with stolen items.

About 15 minutes later, deputy Grant Landis spotted a vehicle matching the description of the stolen pickup on Olive Highway, near Foothill Boulevard.

With only a driver in the truck, Landis pulled in behind the vehicle when it turned onto Foothill and — according to a Sheriff's Office press release — the chase was on with speeds reaching 70 mph.

At the Foothill Oro-Quincy Highway intersection, the pickup went out of control, hit and sheared off a power pole, hit another vehicle, slammed into a fire hydrant and came to rest against a boulder.

The impact with the power pole strained electrical lines into a vacant house, which caught fire. The driver of the truck jumped from the vehicle and ran between houses on Canyon Highlands Drive, with Landis in pursuit.

The deputy was able to chase down the driver, Christopher Sooth, 24.

He was charged with vehicle theft and home-invasion robbery. He was on parole for burglary.

The press release said pepper spray and property allegedly taken from the Forbestown home were reportedly found in the truck.

Meanwhile, the Oroville Fire Department came and closed Oro-Quincy Highway and Foothill Boulevard because the downed power lines posed a safety hazard.

Battalion Chief Dean Hill Jr. said a fire sparked on the side of a vacant house near the electric meter box. Firefighters couldn't enter the house until PG&E turned off the power.

Hill said the fire was contained to the outside of the house near the meter, with some under the house. Although fire did not enter the house, the inside was damaged by smoke.

Later Thursday evening into early Friday, Marcus Dimitri Jones, 35, was arrested at his home on West Second Avenue in Chico, according to an updated press release.

Later, detectives arrested Derek Elden Pierce, 31, after locating a car associated with the robbery outside of an Oroville casino and following it to his home on Royal Oak Drive in Oroville.

Both men were charged with burglary, vehicle theft, robbery, possession of stolen property and false imprisonment.

The target of the robbers appears to be firearms owned by the victim, according to the press release. Most of the property has been recovered.